West Bengal: First trauma care centre inaugurated at RG Kar Hospital

Kolkata: The West Bengal Government's first full-fledged Trauma Care Centre, located at the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata, was inaugurated recently by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

A trauma centre is a medical facility equipped and staffed to treat patients who suffer major injuries during an accident.

The hi-tech seven-storey facility has facilities for treatment of all sorts of head injuries, including very severe ones. The departments include departments which include medicine, neuro-medicine, neuro-surgery, orthopedic and anesthesiology.

There are 120 beds in totality 70 dedicated to trauma patients and another 50 for neurosurgery and neuro-medicine. On the fifth floor is a high-dependency unit (HDU) with 25 beds. Six modern operation theatres (OT) are located on the first and second floors, with three on each floor.

Imaging facilities, comprising of a CT scan machine and a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machine, are located on the ground floor. Among other facilities are a fully-equipped resuscitation centre, a mobile OT, ventilators and emergency X-Ray facilities.

The idea is to ensure that a trauma patient does not have to be moved out of the building during the entire hospital stay. R G Kar gets a lot of road accident victims and other trauma patients from Kolkata as well as North 24 Parganas, Nadia, Hooghly and Howrah districts.